The Clippers started in San Diego and from my knowledge are not struggling attendance wise. The common people around here can afford Clippers tickets over the Fakers. You can get lower level seating for less than an upper level when its a home game for the Fakers.

Contraction, if it happens, will come from teams in the heartland. It is needed due to the lack of quality players. I dont care about the owners pocketbook. There are too many players who do not belong in the NBA.

Don't know where you heard that "most players live beyond their means and are destitute 3 years after leaving" thing, but I know a few people around the NBA (1 former owner, 1 current owner, 2 players) and that's not what I hear. I hear the highly visible failures come out and are visible (witness our own Walker) but that most players don't have this problem. Most quietly live a good life and have plenty of money to live off of after leaving the league.

Moreover, that has nothing to do with league consolidation. Teams will have to close for really only one reason - the owner is losing money and can't/won't support the team any longer. Those teams not making money could have to close down.

I would be surprised if there is not contraction. There is a lot of lousy ball in the league, further adversely impacted by the new "pact" mode where quasi-stars (compared to actual stars in years gone past) have to band together to try to win.

The recent NO bailout was said by many to be just a coat of paint away for several other teams. The longer the economy craps the bed the more these average teams in below average locations are going to hurdle towards the red.

Darn it if there isn't a quarter billion on the table or more of flat out UN EARNED, OVERPAID, and/or LUDICROUS compensation well above their abilities/desires right there! Not only is that just the overpayment of said individuals, some more than one per team, but the entire HINDERANCE of building a competitive roster around these bozos!

Slobs like Curry, Blunt, Booth, Jerlome James who don't even scarcely make an effort to play save for 27 games in their careers should not a fortune make. No more 100% guarantees and there HAVE to be performance bogeys built in that result in pay cuts if they are not met.

For the last 12 years or so, the league has been run like a charity, just as General Motors has become a gigantic pension administration company that happens to belch out an inferior automobile every once in a while. It just has to stop. When you consider the above along with the fact that kids are entering the league ever younger, ever more pampered through their whole trip through the lower ranks, ever less coachable, ever less funda MENTALLY sound, you have a league that has a serious brand quality issue that is only growing in magnitude ever year that passes.

Acie do you want to cite where you pulled that hilarious list from? Sorry, history major here, plagerism is a real offense:-)Posted by rameakap

i pulled it from any number of sources, about 10 or 12 total and many from the top of my head, the contracts are public property / common knowledge, not any author's property and i made up the various surnames my very self, pulled the levers on ink color, font size and italics, etc. by hand. so i dont' think i plagiarized anyone. The more I got digging, the more stiffs I dug up, you could even make a "Hot 100" list of all the ripoff artists in the NBA.

i take that back, i hijacked "turkish gervin" from whoever had turkypoop's miserable failed dunk up on yahoo sports. i almost wet myself laughing at that 5 cent impersonation of clyde the glide- turky only took off from one step away... too much.

I would be surprised if there is not contraction. There is a lot of lousy ball in the league, further adversely impacted by the new "pact" mode where quasi-stars (compared to actual stars in years gone past) have to band together to try to win. The recent NO bailout was said by many to be just a coat of paint away for several other teams. The longer the economy craps the bed the more these average teams in below average locations are going to hurdle towards the red. And the recent salary history is more ludicrous than merit based. Big men have become robbers in this league second only to perhaps massively overpaid 3/4 swing guys. ALL players making 3 times their worth- and there are a lot of them- RipOFF Hammy, Wretch hard Lewis , Charlie V, Luke Waldron, Lucius Walton, LUKE WALTIN, L. Wall ton, Mark Blunt , "Gunny" Arenas , Peja , Kirkalenko, Boron Davis , Joe Smith , Shawn "My Tricks" Marion, Erick Dumpier , Jerlame O'Neal , Auston Crochet, JOE JOE JOHNSON , Calvin Booth , Defatgana Diop , Eldron Brand, Marko Jarik, Jared Jeffires, Fast Eddy Curry , Sa $ ha Money machine Vujadjick, Turkish Gervin Turkoglue , B(r)ad Miller, Baurice Diaw, Noseoni, Sweet Lou Deng , Brian "Bong" Grant, JAWANN HOWARD, Dan Gadzooksic , Tricky Nick Collison, Kanyon of Injuries Marlin , Ben Wallace, Rape LaFrentz , Beno Yuckrih, Jason RICH ard $ on, Vin Baker, KG, Matt Carroll, Emeager Okafor , Tim "Perpetual Potential" Thomas Over and Over Again, KENNY Thomas , Moe Pete, Corey Mageety, Samuel Daliumbridge, Neknee Hilarious, Michael " Has Me Seeing " Redd , Vinny Carter, Jamalignant Tinsely, Larry Long Time Offender Hughes , Allan Houston We Have a Problem, AntYAWN Jameson , Joel Vanilla Garilla Prysbilla, Tra$ey MecGreedy , Zach "Big Numbers on Horrible Teams" Randolph , Andres Izgodala, Nazr Mahammed, Richard Gypperson , and who could forget Jermome James and Jim McIlvaines . Darn it if there isn't a quarter billion on the table or more of flat out UN EARNED, OVERPAID, and/or LUDICROUS compensation well above their abilities/desires right there! Not only is that just the overpayment of said individuals, some more than one per team, but the entire HINDERANCE of building a competitive roster around these bozos! Posted by aciemvp

and lest we forget to add "Walking Wounded" Walleye Zerbiak to that list. Walleye was, for a number of years, the epitome of a tapped out, overpaid, always injured, underperforming, devoid of defense, unspectacular, increasingly immobile, thorn in KG' side, swing man in the league.

Oh my word- Walleye was one of the worst offenders. From 2006-7 until his curtain call, he pocketed an outrageous 38.3 million dollars for scoring a grand total of 1,857 points over three walking wounded seasons of various franchises' miseries.

Hold onto your seats, that's....... $20,638 per POINT scored.

Walleye was a real check book killer- kobe for instance, in 2008-9 pocketed only $9,660 per point scored in an NBA MVP candidate year!

Even in KG's most mind boggling payday year of 28M for 2003-4, he only netted $14,091 per point scored, in another MVP candidate type year.

Wall-E did well for himself!

Seriously though, the league has to stop compensating people long past their prime in this manner, it's absolutely unconscionable.

people tak about teams losing money. My buddy catered a small event for steve pagliuca when he was running for senate. when they got talking about the celtics steve said they lwere losing money on them. just because we have one of the top teams in the league doesnt mean we make money at it.

i do think the top players are overpaid in this league. max contracts should be about 8-10 million. i'm not even counting endorsement deals either. that way the smaller teams can still bid for players and have a competitive league.

and the heck with "the players deciding where they want to go in trade talks" (unless you are a free agent, you can go where you please, which technically bosh and james did :X) the celtics big 3 were brought together through trade. you think those guys were talking over the summer about playing together? no, pierce was talking to kobe out in cali betting who got traded first.

i think it would be good for the league to contract some teams...but the ratings for the NBA in even non-heat games is up across the board...this kinda of revenue is going to make sure the NBA doesnt contract and hell, they even add a team or two to the mix

Heat fans are the fairest of fair weather fans, aren't they? I actually heard on an ESPN broadcast that the fans of South Beach in ANY sport will only attend the games if their team is winning. Imagine having a playoff team (last year) and not being able to sell out the Arena!!

Heat fans are the fairest of fair weather fans, aren't they? I actually heard on an ESPN broadcast that the fans of South Beach in ANY sport will only attend the games if their team is winning. Posted by hedleylamarr

this is true and could be seen in SPADES at any early season heat game, you know, when they needed fan support the most. the first game against the c's, the second half the entire primo loge seating was 70% or more empty by the start of the second half. they just left.

then i got interested and watched espn highlights of stinky heat home games (lot of them early on) and the ones from the second half of the games were like someone gave a bomb threat to rows 1-20 right behind the bench and off the floor- nobody was there!

Stephen no more action jackson, Mike just call me korver miller, Larry thanks for the check now your screwed hughes.Posted by DFURY13

i have been tooling through basketball-reference.com looking at just simply NAMES alphabetically from the last 15 years of the nba. and the perpetrators of excessive fraudulent pay pop right out at you. there arent' even 100, there's probably more than 200.

the last six years of glen rice, kenny "i'll try if i want to" anderson, jason "no kap space" kapono, mikki "ain't got skills no moore" absolutely robbed the kings for 3 years, steve smith STOLE a lot of MONEy in the twighlight of his broken down career. and on it goes. i'd say 200 easily.

The Clippers started in San Diego and from my knowledge are not struggling attendance wise. The common people around here can afford Clippers tickets over the Fakers. You can get lower level seating for less than an upper level when its a home game for the Fakers. Contraction, if it happens, will come from teams in the heartland. It is needed due to the lack of quality players. I dont care about the owners pocketbook. There are too many players who do not belong in the NBA. Teams that should go: Toronto, Memphis, New Orleans and maybe Sac.Posted by jdm894g

If you want to go back even further the Clippers are the former Buffalo Braves.The Braves owner actually swaped franchises with the Celtics and sent the team to San Diego.

New Orleans and Memphis cannot economically support an NBA franchise and Seattle had theirs robbed from them in the most shameful fashion. The owner of the Clips is a scummy slumlord who won't pay players and heckles the one guy he did pay. There is no need for two teams in the same city.Posted by rameakap

This is so the fakers get to play extra 5-6 Home games a year without travel. We have to accomadate the Fakers.